Prime Ways - Japanese

Language Reviews

8 Million Members

Japanese is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Japonic-Ryukyuan languages. Its relationships with other languages remain undemonstrated. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and a person mentioned in conversation (regardless of their presence). The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. It is a mora-timed language.

The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji (漢字), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名) and katakana (片仮名). The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.

Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese and Dutch have also been influential.

Michel Thomas ( by Michel Thomas)  No memorizing, no text books, no drills, no homework!

Another Michel Thomas course produced after he passed away a few years ago. Again his method is intact and the pronunciations are confirmed by the Japanese assistant with Helen Gihooly. For Japanese there is a complete series from Introductory (taster) to Foundation (beginners), and an Advanced course, Still one of the best best ways to begin learning from scratch. Please also look at the reviews others have given.

Assimil Japanese With Ease ( by Assimil)

Assimil has a glowing reputation for language learning based on their simple two fold approach. The first stage is known as "Passive Learning" which requires you to listen to the lesson, say it aloud (or to yourself) so you get pronunciation right and then to follow it again using the translation conveniently written directly opposite. The second stage is called "Active Phase" and starts approximately half way thorough the book. At this time you carry on doing the Passive phase (daily) then you revert back to the first lesson and translate it yourself without looking at the translation. It is more effective if you approach this as a written exercise rather than trying to recall it in your mind only. Then you do your next passive lesson and go to the second lesson of the book to translate and so on.... Don't worry, though, the instructions are clear and you won't go wrong. You need to do one lesson a day (also a translation when you reach that second stage which adds another half an hour). The dialogues are expertly written and played out by professional voice actors of the country. They are lively and humorous and keep your interest. The lessons are ordered so you build gradually on what you have learnt. Don't be tempted to do more than one lesson a day, there is a reason why its "little and often" so to maximise your learning capability and keep you excited to continue.. This is an approach that will take at least 6 months to complete and by then you will acquire a level of understanding comparable to B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.  The lessons/stories are different for each language. There is also a book for Writing Japanese which is a great compliment to the main book

	Tell Me More
	Tell Me More is a revolutionary new approach to language learning. The Japanese language course has 3 Levels with 1500 exercises and 8000 recorded words. Tell Me More will allow you to achieve fluency in the Japanese language and its not hard work but really great fun. Its very difficult to tear yourself away from it! This will last you a long long time but its an enjoyable way to learn. The only downside is the price which is around £100 but given the effectiveness of the teaching it deserves 5 stars.

Pimsleur ( by Paul Pimsleur)

I have been very impressed by Pimsleurs' asian languages. They get you speaking right away and you slowly build until you can properly express yourself. Its not learning phrases, but more a phrase or more and you end up changing it to say what you want to say. An extremely good technique and the best bit is you remember effortlessly. Pimsleur languages use the linguistic approach of timed repetition which forces words into your long term memory, rather than just the short term. There are 3 levels for Japanese but they are are expensive ~ £200 per level. You can read about the method here. Download more detailed information on course content here (PDF) Level 2 - Click Here Level 3 - Click Here

Rosetta Stone ( by Rosetta Stone)

Rosetta Stone Japanese is a fun introduction to Japanese and will quickly familiarise you with the language. It is available in the new Version 3 language software and is recommended. It is quite passive but extremely effective. If you treat it like a game you can learn very fast because  its addictive. It is also structured in such a way as to give a defined progression which is so often lacking in traditional language learning methods. Worth 5 stars but because of the price we gave it 4.

	Earworms ( by Marlon Lodge)
	This is a very simple idea that makes learning Japanese fun and easy. Its an English man conversing with a Japanese woman and asking her how to say things in Japanese. All the time there is a rhythmic sound/beat going on to her syllables which is designed to stick in your mind rather like a catchy song. The vocabulary being taught is basic but essential and is a relaxing experience. You don't need to make any real conscious effort as your brain is absorbing it through the beats. There are two cd's in the Japanese range and you can listen to samples by clicking the pictures on the left. Overall a fun and enjoyable experience, reasonably priced and it works! But only for basic survival skills.